Ron Perlman on Sons of Anarchy
Getting the last word with Clay Morrow.
by Johnny Firecloud
Nov 03, 2009

I was lucky enough to head down to the set of "Sons of Anarchy" in Los Angeles recently, to get a firsthand feeling for the second season of the excellent FX biker series. We were granted some roundtable time with the show's stars, and Ron Perlman (who plays Clay Morrow, the president of the motorcycle gang and stepfather of the main character) had some interesting thoughts on Season Two, as well as the possibility of him making an appearance in Guillermo Del Toro's (hopefully) upcoming Hobbit films.

At the end of the first season, Clay found himself heading a club that was beginning to splinter apart, and finds himself in the crosshairs of the federal government.  What’s in store for Clay in Season 2?

Ron Perlman: We’re going to find out what he’s made of, and whether or not he answers the call of duty.  How he answers it will determine his leadership style. He’s going to go head to head with the only person who thinks he knows what exactly went down, and that’s the Vice President, Jax. So that plays itself out almost throughout the entire season.

How do you think Clay’s age is going to affect his status? He's vain, but he's beginning to feel his arthritis...

Ron Perlman: Clay has two things going for him that kind of trump all things physical and temporal: and that’s his ego and his vanity.  He forces himself to hold on to everything that he spent his whole life building up for himself, and part of the DNA of bikers in general is their desire to remain forever young and piss in the winds of time and reality and so that’s another one of the beautiful colors of exploring this particular brand of subculture is you get to see how they are behaviorally and explore what makes them tick.

How is this role different than any you’ve played in the past?

Ron Perlman: I’ve never played a person who didn’t have a sense of humor about himself until I played Clay.  It’s not that he doesn’t have a sense of humor, it’s just that he doesn’t have one about himself.  Every other character I’ve played has the ability to see from the other persons point of view. This guy doesn’t.  It’s his way or the highway, and I’ve never played anybody who was quite so single-minded.

Explain the change in dynamic in adding Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins to the cast.

Ron Perlman: I think we’re painting on a slightly larger canvas. Rather than just deal with other clubs, we’re going against much larger conceptual enemies, and it’s forcing us to polish up what we do and what we have going for us in order to keep our heads above water, because they keep beating us. They’re epic, they’re that epic, and it’s a mythical thing. I think the second season is much more interconnected, taking place in a compressed, short period of time. I think before we had some one-offs, but if you watch one episode of this season, you’ve got to see them all.

Ryan Hurst (Opie Winston) mentioned that before the second season began Kurt set everybody down and talked to them about their characters and what they saw for the future. So what is your relationship with Kurt when it comes to molding Clay?

Rob Perlman: I think I have a real good relationship with Kurt. I wish I had more access to him. He rewrites every single episode and then he is editing all the time. But that one generous moment when he invited every cast member to come in and talk about what they saw, and what they felt, and what they aspired to see happen to their characters, he took it very, very seriously. I’m one of the very oldest members of the whole company. I talked a lot about mortality issues. About a man getting to the point where he realizes his days are numbered. And every single thing that he does, and feels, and thinks, and believes is slightly altered because of coming to grips with mortality issues. We talked a lot about that. There is one episode where it’s just lifted off the conversation we had. I think it’s the third episode. Because he said, "What is the first thing a guy does when he realizes that he has far less days to come then he has behind him?" I said, "He starts biting the head off of every body. It’s out of control anger. He’s railing against reality. And he’s taking it out on everybody near and dear to him and everybody that he loves. It’s irrational, but then again so is this thing.’"And lo and behold, an episode came in and there it was. It’s a very human thing, especially for a guy who is as vital and formable as Clay Morrow, when you see him really grappling with mortality issues. What is this world going to be like with out me in it? What mark have I made? How do I make a bigger one before it’s all over? All of that stuff.

Can you tell us what reactions you’ve gotten from real motorcycle gangs regarding the show?


Ron Perlman: I live in a bubble. You know, I don’t read the blogs, or go on the internet, and I really just don’t know what people are saying because... well I guess I’m afraid to. Guillermo Del Toro told me when we were on the set of Hellboy II, he said “You're a fucking idiot man, you’ve gotta go on the blogs. They love you man, they fucking love you! It’s a fucking love fest man, you don’t know what you’re missing!” So the next morning I went on the Hellboy II blog with my cup of coffee, you know, I’m just trying to wake up, and I see two comments.  The first one says “Ron Perlman is a big fat fuck who has no talent”, and the second says “We waited all these years to have our beloved Hellboy get a movie and we ended up with this second rate character actor”, and I said, “Thank you, Guillermo, but I think I’ll stick with being stupid.” So yeah, I don’t know what they’re saying.  I go home to my family and try to rise to the beautiful bounty that has been placed in front of me by the wonderful Kurt Sutter.  I never felt that what other people thought helped me, it really just served as a distraction. I’m not saying it’s the right way or the wrong way to go about it, but I’m a little superstitious about it.

Word on the street is that Del Toro wants you for his Hobbit movies.

Ron Perlman: Did he say that?

He did say that. You haven’t talked to him about it?

Ron Perlman: Well that’s very nice of him. I haven’t talked very much to Guillermo recently, I did the audiobook for The Strain, which is the book he put out and, I don’t even know whether or not he liked it because he’s been so busy with these two Hobbit movies. If that was able to happen, and if that’s what Guillermo wants, then that would be nice. Because a day on the set with Guillermo Del Toro is a state of grace.

 

Interview: RON PERLMAN GETS ON HIS BIKE AGAIN FOR 'SONS OF ANARCHY' SEASON TWO

The actor talks about being back as biker leader Clay Morrow on the FX series

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer
Published 10/7/2009

Chances are good that you and/or someone you know loves Ron Perlman. The main question is what he’s loved for the most. Fans of ‘80s fantasy romance on TV still adore his heroic leonine Vincent on CBS’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Western aficionados admire his tough Preacher on the TV version of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, Broadway attendees remember him snarling “You can’t handle the truth!” onstage in A FEW GOOD MEN and Guillermo Del Toro/Mike Mignola followers champion Perlman’s two turns thus far as the title character in the HELLBOY films.

Now Perlman is back for a second season of hell-raising as motorcycle gang leader Clarence “Clay” Morrow in FX’s SONS OF ANARCHY, airing Tuesday nights at 10.

ANARCHY, says Perlman, “is a great place to be creatively, because you’re never comfortable. You’re never phoning it in. You’re always being challenged to the top of your game.”

Something else Perlman likes about the show created by Kurt Sutter is its basis in reality. “[It’s] always grounded. That’s what makes it so delectable, is that there’s never been anything that happens on the show that happens gratuitously. There’s always a cause and effect based on the intricate world that [Sutter has] already set up.”

In first season, there seemed to be a definite narrative parallel to HAMLET, what with Clay marrying Gemma (Katey Sagal), the widow of the motorcycle club’s former leader, and Gemma’s son and heir apparent, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) returning to town and the gang, suspicious of Clay’s actions as head of the group and its corporation, SAMCRO. Can Perlman tell us anything about the contentious relationship between Clay and Jax this year? “Well, if you remember what happened at the end of the last season, Jax has a really, really good idea about the reality of that and even though it’s been covered up to the best of our ability, he feels like he knows the truth of it, and he feels like what his club president has done has been a violation of everything that he holds in his hierarchy of what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. So he’s odds not only with Clay, but with everything that Clay stands for, he’s at odds with everything that Clay does on a policy level and being the president of this organization, even though it’s an outlaw organization, [Clay is] still the president, he still makes policy, just like the President of the United States would or the president of any corporation would. And Jax is having a lot of trouble with the guy who has all of the authority and Clay is having a lot of trouble with the vice-president questioning everything that he does, even the good stuff that he does. So that’s what you’re going to see throughout the course of the second season, at least through episode ten, because that’s what we’re working on now. I don’t know what happens in eleven, twelve, thirteen.”

On a more physical note, how is Perlman doing with actually riding a motorcycle, which was a new experience for him when he began SONS OF ANARCHY? “I’ve gotten to the point where I can ride the bike and actually go forward and make turns. I’ve done all the riding shots this season. Last season, I maybe did three out of thirty.”

Perlman is famous for enduring some incredibly uncomfortable makeup. Are the physical demands of a role, in terms of makeup and/or physical action requirements, part of the criteria he uses to select projects? “Well, luckily,” Perlman says, “I’ve never reached a point where my inability to do something physically has become part of the discussion. I’m headed there – I’m going to be sixty on my next birthday – and I guess that will eventually be a factor, but I still feel like I’m invincible. I know I’ve slowed down a little bit, I know that the healing process when you get banged up is not as speedy as it once was, but I still feel like I’m a young guy. You’re always going to be challenged physically, no matter what role you’re doing, even if you’re sitting on a couch, having intellectual conversation, because acting is hard work. It’s long hours and you need to be in good condition to be an actor, no matter what the role is. So that’s a given, that’s not even a consideration.”

What has Perlman been up to between seasons of ANARCHY? Well, I left immediately after [shooting ended on first season]. I was on the first plane after we finished the last shot over to Budapest to work with Nicolas Cage and Dominique Sena on a medieval period piece called SEASON OF THE WITCH, which will be out next March, and that was about four months of a six-month hiatus. The rest of the time I spent healing, going to the gym, getting ready for Season Two, learning how to ride a bike, practicing.

Having done many of both, does Perlman prefer the pace of film or the pace of a television series? “The pace of shooting a TV series is relentless. On SEASON OF THE WITCH, I would say I spent sixty percent of the whole movie on my back in my trailer, waiting for them to get to me. On this thing [ANARCHY], I spend maybe three percent of all my time in my trailer, and that’s basically to tie my shoelaces, and then, boom, I’m on set. It’s putting out fourteen hours a day. So I like being busy, I like being challenged. This is being challenged to the nth degree.

Alan Arkin and Henry Rollins play member of a white supremacist group who tangle with SAMCRO this year. Perlman says working wit the two actors is “fantastic. They’re consummate pros, two very bright guys. I always enjoy being around guys who challenge you intellectually and have better ideas than you do and make you think about things in a way that you might not have thought about them before. It’s a groove to have them on the show. I think if you liked Season One, I think you’re probably going to like Season Two, and I hope the audience is patient with us and hangs in there and likes what we’re doing half as much as we like what we’re doing.”

Copyright©Sylvia Untermann-2007-2009

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